In coastal Orange County, I used to grow a lot of Austins. Most did fine. One of my favourites was Heritage... but when I planted it I had NO idea how big it was going to get. By the end of its first year it was over 8 feet tall! The next winter I cut it all the way back and moved it to a spot where it could go crazy and it loved it. A great rose, but for me it did get some PM and rust.. so watch out for that. Heritage: I hated Teasing Georgia.. it put out long thin spindly canes that couldn't hold up the fairly unimpressive flowers. I put it on a trellis and that helped, but if I had stayed in that garden I would have replaced it with something else. My favourite yellow Austin Jude the Obscure. It does really well in a warm climate and has the most heavenly, delicious, fruity scent. A fabulous rose. Jude the Obscure: Charles Darwin for me was strong, well scented, and had a lovely yellow that faded to a soft mustard. I loved it, but many people don't like the colour as it fades. Charles Darwin Molineux was a bloom machine, and was really the first rose that smelled like tea to me... I couldn't believe it... it smelled just like tea, I finally understood! Molineux: I loved William Shakespeare 2000. He has a wonderful scent, blooms well, and the colour changes to an AMAZING deep purple/pink. One of the best Austins in my opinion. William Shakespeare 2000: I haven't grown the other ones on your list, but I did just visit David Austin's gardens a few weekends ago, and they had The Generous Gardener growing all over the place. It is certainly a favourite rose there. They had it growing as a climber most of the time, like in this photo (it's too early for blooms here, but you can see the potential for this one to turn into quite a climber, that's it on the right): I think you'd be wise to take the good advice you've seen on the forum and visit the gardens near where you live and see which plants seem to be doing well there and consider getting them; but also, I recommend that if there are some roses that you're dying to try and they make your heart sing when you look at them, go ahead and try a couple of those too. Every garden is different, you might get lucky... or you might wish you'd listened to others, but I think it's a matter of taking a few risks for the sake of love now and then. Happy gardening! robert

Dottie, I don't think they're really sure, there's a lot of confusion about these plants. Here's some info.... http://www.epiphyllum.com/epiwhat.htm Judy, this is a smaller epi (hybrid). I think most of what you got were the epiphyllum strictum. I've seen them bloom from cuttings the 1st season and some have taken 5 or 6 years. Most average about 2 or 3 years. There's a pic of strictum on my exchange page. Here's a pic of 'First Prom' another hybrid. Summer Fairy (above) has all the attributes of the larger ones but is taking up a lot less room. the center parts are not cream like the pic but a bright white.

Yea I'm wondering too as I live in central FL. As I plan a larger outdoor system I am considering digging a hole in the ground for the reservoir to help keep it colder. I have been told to just add water throughout the week, then change at the end of the week. And I guess the trick is to make it so that you barely have enough water in there by the time you change, so that no money has been wasted. This is what I'm learning to do with my indoor tomoatos right now. The 5 gallon bucket I have allows the water level to be pumped out very near to the top of the pump - doesn't take much water in there because the tray filled with pebbles only takes two gallons to flood it, and only about 1/2 gallon is needed to cover the pump, so I can run from 4 or 5 gallons at the beginning of the week and check the PH during the week, running down to about 1.5 gallons that I keep topped of by the end of the week, then change out the nutrient. All that said, I think what you are talking about is perhaps not changing out the nutrient as frequently and topping off what was replaced? I would think it'd be best to keep the nutrient as near the original levels as possible unless there is danger of too much of one element being present by adding more nutrient. I think that's why the general advice I've seen is to top off with water during the week - keeping in mind that there is nutrient that will come back into the water a little bit from the growing medium throught the week. I think this is why it's best to have a lower overflow level on an ebb and flow system for example so that the water can circulate a little bit extra during the flood stage. So far this week my nutrient concentration has remained the same as the water level has gone way down - indicating to me that my plants are eating as well as drinking :) So I'd like to get this level of efficiency with nutrients when I do some larger scale outdoor stuff. My major concern is how to keep the nutrient at 72 - 74 F in Florida. Honestly though it's tough to grow in midsummer in FL, I guess it depends what you're growing and if you're using shade cloth - but I like you want to try it.

I couldn't think of a favorite, until BLTs were mentioned. Oh, how I look forward to the time when we have "REAL" tomatoes. Around here it isn't until August -- then it's time for BLTs. I guess ice cream would also rank high on my extensive list!